So I have not seen much in these forums discussing fish and wanted to see if anyone else enjoys a well kept aquarium or pond without spending a small fortune to do so.Why keep fish? Of coarse you can't pet a fish and rarely will it do anything deemed a trick but I have found that fish are calming to watch and there are a large variety of colorful and interesting looking fish out there.

I have a 30 gallon tank which has played host to many different fish over the years and since I set it up and the 2 Placostumus at the bottom have outlasted every other fish I have.

I have also found that having plenty of fresh live plants in the tank really add to the overall value of the tank as well as water quality.

We have 2 aquariums, a 50 gal. in the living room and a 30 gal. in the bar. We had 3 at one time and I would really like to get down to one. In the 50 gal. we have 3 Bala Sharks, 1 Gourami, and 2 Placos. In the 30 gal. we have 1 Angel fish, 1 Upside down catfish and 6 guppies. When the Bala Sharks and the Gourami are gone I am going to just have have the 50 gal. tank. My favorite fish are the Tiger Barbs and the Cory catfish. Need to get some new plants, for some reason some of the plants we had died out. Tank cleaning is this weekend. Sometimes I dread that chore.

Val

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"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.

I agree there, I try to overload my tank with plants and bottom feeders just so I can get away with cleaning it less. I usually try and keep it stocked with 10-15 ghost shrimp to help but they end up a tasty snack for the others after a month or so.

I put in some drift wood about 2 months ago to help "soften" the water and it seems to also help keep the tank cleaner longer, I am not sure that it really possible though.